Category Archives: State Politics

It may not be the compelling campaign slogan in Maine political history, but you can’t fault First-District Republican congressional candidate Mark Holbrook for his directness. “If we want to make this country safe and great again and take the state of Maine forward, close your eyes, hold your nose, do whatever you need to do, […]

Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson’s visit to Maine this Friday isn’t surprising, given the state’s history and the current political moment. Third-party and independent candidates up and down the ballot have often received significant support in Maine, and the particular dynamics of the 2016 race may lead to an electoral boost for third-party presidential […]

Republican State Senator Roger Katz wrote an op-ed in the MaineToday newspapers over the weekend that is absolutely stunning. Not only did he publicly reject the presidential nominee of his party, but he didn’t pull a single punch in denouncing the worst aspects of Donald Trump and his campaign. Other Maine Republicans have previously attempted […]

Speaking to the delegates of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia yesterday, Maine State Representative Diane Russell celebrated the success of her resolution to bind superdelegates to state votes in future elections. “We are united, and fixing the super-delegate system is the path to making sure our party is the strongest party, not just this […]

“I don’t get involved in the presidential election,” Maine Second-District Representative Bruce Poliquin told reporters yesterday, again refusing to answer questions from the media about his support for his party’s nominee for President, or even mention Trump’s name in public. But that statement isn’t quite accurate. Poliquin is willing to speak about the presidential election […]

Last week I wrote about how Maine’s media is handling serial lying by Gov. Paul LePage. That piece, which followed a fact-check of one of LePage’s town hall appearances (and which happened to be followed by a great piece of analysis by BDN reporters Chris Cousins and Mike Shepherd making some of the same points) […]

This week, the Bangor Daily News took a transcript of one of Gov. Paul LePage’s weekly town halls, analyzed it and annotated it, finding “scores of mistruths and misunderstandings of basic government functions.” A similar pattern of repeated, blatant lying has been abundantly clear every time the media has conducted similar fact-checking of his public […]

Today at 11 a.m. in the atrium of the Maine State Archives, Secretary of State Matt Dunlap will engage in a quirky ritual of Maine democracy. He will determine, through some kind of random drawing, the order of the citizen initiative referendum questions on November’s ballot. As far as I can tell, Maine is the […]

Maine’s newly-revamped system of public campaign financing was successful in a wide range of contests across the state on Tuesday, with a majority of Clean Elections candidates winning in primary races where they were matched against privately-financed opponents. Clean Elections candidates won eight of thirteen such match-ups for the State Senate and four of seven […]

Dr. Mark Holbrook seems perfectly suited to the current mood of the Republican electorate. His set of extreme positions are joined to a bullying style that puts him right in line with Donald Trump and Governor Paul LePage. It’s likely this profile that allowed him to pull off a razor-thin upset win (pending an almost-certain […]

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Mike Tipping

Mike is Maine's longest-writing political blogger and explores state politics and policy with a focus on analysis and explanation. He works at the Maine People's Alliance and Maine People's Resource Center.